Another World
by BuYaoNi
Summary: Turning his head back and forth, the remnants of the dream still lingered.
1. Chapter one

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy.

A/N:I am not sure if anyone else written something like this or not. Its just been something I have been thinking about for a while. Also, that I am sad that we will never see what Final Fantasy versus would have been like. Anyways, I had fun writing it, and I look forward to writing some of the other parts (especially the potential fight between Stella and Noctis).

-Also, I based the conversation off from a fandub found on youtube (check it out! It's pretty good) and an English translation.

-I had to rewrite it again. I started writing it backwards and it kind of changed a little of how I wanted it to go in the beginning.

* * *

"Of all the things you choose in life, you don't get to choose what your nightmares are.  
You don't pick them; they pick you."  
-John Irving

* * *

Another World

"Noctis you can see the light too?"

Noctis's hand curled tighter around a smaller hand of a girl about his age as their feet continued shuffling through the dirt, looked up to see a gleam of light. The clouds are hanging low in the sky, even the warm sun could not penetrate the mist, and creating new shadows and dark patches around them . Gray and ominous, it just seemed to be draining the happiness and excitment out of his stay during an official meeting for the city to pay tribute to the kingdom. It reminded him of things people should not have to see. For a time his breath would quickened and he then used every muscle in his tiny body to stifle a whimper. It surprised him that someone else could see the light and almost welcome it. He simply nodded. At the same moment, the girl asked suddenly. "Has the light ever spoken to you before?"

Noctis almost snorted, wishing the girl hadn't ask or reminded him about the light speaking. Of course how could he forget, it was just something he could never get out of his head. He remembered:

 _Under a waning moon._  
 _Wine spilled between lovers._  
 _One will fall into a sweet slumber,_  
 _Besides eyes that glow red as blood._

 _Upon the throne of despair._  
 _Alone in that dark place._  
 _Surrounded only by the eeriness of death._  
 _In a chamber of treasure,_  
 _your enemies plot revenge,_  
 _yet cannot reach you._  
 _Sleep well,_  
 _they lie in wait._

Sighing, he answered honestly. "Yeah, it did. What about you?"

She squeezed his hand briefly and simply nodded. "Yeah, me too. It's something that I think about every now and again."

They had both sneaked out passed all the adults to go exploring together. It was funny and exciting at first, but now Noctis felt a strange sense of something as close to a darkness ready to clustered itself menacingly beneath the trees, seeping itself forth a palpable sense of foreboding which grew exponentially with each footstep they took as if it was waiting to pounce on them. He felt eyes burning a hole in the back of their heads. As he looked over his shoulder to see something fast jump out. 

* * *

Noctis opened his eyes and sat up. Turning his head back and forth, the remnants of the dream still lingered. His mind still felt disorganized, feeling the details fade as he try to recall them. He could not recall how long it has been since he started seeing those dreams. The years just blurred into one mass, he always wondered if it really happened. It comes and goes in no particular order.

Those dreams always reminded Noctis of the story of the Goddess Etro who opens the gate welcoming the souls of the departed. When that happens a bright light is set to shine down from the land of the dead. Yes, the eyes that see the light of expiring souls and are said to receive a great power. It was something he did not wish to see. For years as a youth he denied it rather than embrace that gift, he would always tell himself that denial was better, and that is the reason he was still alive. A permanent weariness had etched on his face, but in his eyes there was a hard gleam. It was because he wanted to live a lie, to be not alone in seeing it. But over time he could not turn away from it.

Noctis sighed. He was tired. His eyes felt heavy.

He closed his eyes, then sleep came. A sleep that carried a reminder...

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading!

-I apologize for any grammatical errors. My beta's been MIA for a while. I tried my best.

-I still plan to write this to around five or six chapters in total.


	2. Chapter two

Disclaimer: I don't own FF.

A/N: Please go back to chapter one I had to rewrite it again, since I started writing the outline backwards.

-Also, I based the conversation off from a fandub found on youtube (check it out! It's pretty good) and an English translation.

* * *

"Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."

― C.S. Lewis

* * *

Another World

"Are you sure your wound is okay?" Noctis grunted, as he tried to balance another's weight that was close to his own on his back.

"It's not too bad," she said quietly. "The light reassured me that everything will be fine."

Noctis buckled his lips, but did not say anything more. He felt more blood, beginning to soak the back of his shirt when another pain on his shoulder drew his attention. To his surprise the pain dulled, beginning to become warm.

"You're hurt too," she said with a tinge of guilt in her voice. "You really don't have to carry me."

Before he could reply, she had already wiggled off his back. "Besides you should go on ahead, I'll go through another way."

He stared her silently from under furrowed bows "Wait, why?"

"Look at me, I'm a mess," she began to explain. "It'll be easier for me to sneak back if I am alone."

He was not convinced but did not press it any farther. "Okay...," he sighed. "But your wound...is it really okay now?"

"I'll help you sneak back in," he insisted, worried about the wound on her back.

"Don't worry about me, just live your own life," she said with a twinkle in her eye as she placed a hand on a wall to walk the other way. All he could do was just watch as her small shoulders leaned to one side as she turned a corner.

* * *

"Prince Noctis!"

"Prince Noctis!"

Noctis's eyes fluttered slowly, a sigh emitted from his lips as he rolled his head. He was not sure what that dream was about. It was just something that would come every other time. _It's just something my heart won't let go._ He sighed once more and looked up to Cor talking.

"That's a big impact, isn't it?"

Noctis shifted in his seat as the car crossed onto the highway. High-rise buildings gave way to its very metropolitan view. Armed guards waving their arms to direct incoming cars, Niflheim airships hovering above, said all Nocits needed to know about what was going on in the city's capital. As the car edged through the traffic, Noctis's eye drifted to the dashboard clock. His eyes then drifted back to the window, finding himself questioning what would happen next. If there was one thing Noctis rather not do, was going to formal affairs, he drew in a breath and let it out. It was a celebration for the peace signing between the Kingdom of Lucis and the Kingdom of Niflheim.

Soon the car goes through the checkpoint. Urns of plants and lights lined the private drive of the place. It was almost a dreamlike setting, despite it being a celebration for the truce between the kingdoms. The car came to a stop at the valet's station. A uniformed attendant opened the passenger door and Noctis emerged. He quickly walked through the revolving door and between the marble columns into the exquisitely decorated hall. He went up a modern glass elevator. He rode up to the forty-fifth floor and stepped into a dimly lit place of crystal, white linen, and silver tableware. Floor to ceiling windows gave the other nobles and aristocrats a view of the city's millions of lights. An aquarium at its center stood high following the flight of stairs towards the second part of the floor. Noctis moved through dresses and suits of different types and colors, shaking hands, trading forced pleasantries, and vacant grins. He felt himself being swallowed by the momentum of the bustling masses of the people gathered. Odd words snatched from low murmured of conversations echoed in his mind as he longed to be lost in the shadows of anonymity.

Since he arrived, the sun already had completed its tour for the day and retreated. The moon and stars has taken its place. A peculiar light has also taken place among the night sky. The muscles in his face went limp. He was looking up above. Each step he took required more effort, but he could not stop, he continued to move up the stairs, unwavering. His eyes staring at the bright light.

He was so focused with getting a closer view of the light, as he reached the top of the stairs, out of the corner of his eye he noticed someone else was already there, admiring the view. Turning to take a quick glance to see a young girl.

Blond hair like liquid amber hung over her composed shoulders, stars in her ears, and her eyes were peculiar. The dress was white that fell just past her knees, with sensible matching white shoes. There was a sense of an ethereal air around her. She was simply lovely.

He turned to walk to the other side where he could think and be alone.

"Prince Noctis, you can see the light?"

His name, called with curiosity and interest. Noctis looked over his shoulder, turning around, walking over to look closer at the light. His eyes shifted down towards the girl who continued to stare at the night sky.

"Is that what you are looking at...," she asked, walking after him. "...from downstairs all this time?"

Their eyes met briefly, before Noctis found that he could not hold her gaze. Turning away, not sure whether to engage with the strange girl. In that next second, he answered. "Pretty much," he said and he kept walking and she was still walking after him. "When did you first notice it?''

"When I was a child."

He said dryly. "Near death experience right?"

"Yes, was it the same for you?"

"Yeah, it's not my fondest memory," he sighed, shaking his head.

"It's said that the Goddess Etro will open the gate welcoming the souls of the departed. When that happens, a bright light is set to shine down from the land of the dead. Any who witness that light are rumored to receive great power," she mused. "Or that's how the legend is supposed to go, the one from Tenebrae at least."

"Same legend here."

"So, how about it?" she asked suddenly. "Did you receive any power?"

"I don't think I'd want anything like that. I'm fine the way I am."

That's what I thought!" she replied, in agreement and continued that she had such a mournful expression. "No matter the power if it's at the cost of someone's life it will give me nightmares."

"Me too. Good thing it's just a fairy tale." He thought for a moment and then added as an afterthought. "Hey I wouldn't talk to anyone else about the light."

"How come?"

Sitting down on the edge of one of the benches nearby, hunched over letting out a sigh. "Being too different from others only causes problems," he replied ruefully.

She just looked at him and said softly. "I've always wondered about it and believe that there is something more to it."

"Something more?"

"Yes. That maybe the ones who can see the light...that there is something we must do," she paused to find the right words to describe it and continued. "That there is some path that we must take."

Then an uncomfortable silence followed. Noctis felt that he had to say something more. He sighed, as close an agreement to the subject. _Hidden layers to this sweet girl._ Instead, the girl broke the silence.

"And so if the legend is just a bedtime story then what do you think the light really is?"

"It's just something that's there... " He shrugged. ''Why can't that be enough?"

"So..., uhm...," he asked, as he straighten himself up.

"My name is Stella."

Even though he would have enjoyed continuing the conversation, he felt that it was enough for the night. "Stella. Well I should be going now."

"I thought as much. Thank you very much for your time tonight Prince Noctis."

"Call me Noct."

"I should take my leave as well," she said turning away as Noctis saw her off.

Turning around again, she looked up at the sky briefly before her eyes settled back towards Noctis. "You know I feel that I received something from that light tonight. I was given the chance to speak with you."

"Well, then enjoy the nightmares."

"You're a funny one aren't you Prince Noctis," she laughed, her whole face brightened.

He smiled, there that received a laugh from her. "Just Noct."

"I'll call you that the next time we meet. So, you should try to come by Tenebrae one day and I can show you around."

 _He thought why not?_ "Sounds fun, I'll consider it."

She walked away and he watched until she was no longer in view. Looking up once more towards the night sky, he caught a voice, going through his mind.

 _'Who are you?'_

He replied bitterly. "I was about to ask the same thing."

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading!

-I apologize for any grammatical errors. My beta's been MIA for a while. I tried my best.

-Hopefully, the changes were not too much.


End file.
